With Amazon recently announcing to reduce delivery times to one day for Prime customers across the globe, it got us thinking about automation and it’s threat to manual jobs.

For a long time, the theory has been that robots will take our jobs. But increasingly, more and more respected organisations such as the World Economic Forum and PwC are predicting that robots will create at least as many jobs as they take, and quite possibly more.

Because Selective Recruitment work with most major retailers and logistics companies in the Thames Valley, we’re asked to recruit thousands of people every year in order to meet the increased recruitment demand from companies like Amazon. So here’s five jobs that we’ve seen increased demand for over the last few months – and some we think might be coming!

1. Delivery Drivers

More deliveries means more drivers, and until self-driving cars become a reality, self-driving lorries are even further away. Because of the increased size in both height, width and length, it will require very different technology to allow a lorry to drive itself – so we won’t see self-driving lorries for a good few years yet!
 

2. Customer Services

Has anyone ever spoken to a chatbot online via a message service and actually got the answer they were looking for? Ever? NO! That’s because AI for this type of thing is a long long way off, and ultimately people want to speak to people when there’s a problem. So until robots are as good as the ones in Bladerunner, we’re going to need lots of customer services people!

3. IT

If Amazon had a shop, what would it look like? Well, their website and app is their shop, because all of these products are being bought online  and just like any other it has to be maintained, cleaned, fixed and painted. Which is where IT people come in. There will be thousands of people in the UK working solely on Amazon’s website and apps, and it’s no different for similar companies such as Argos and eBay. Indeed, companies such as House of Fraser and Debenhams who didn’t invest in their digital shop have paid the ultimate price – they’ve gone bust.

4. Marketing / eCommerce

Advertising used to be all suits, cigars and Smirnoff – basically any episode of Mad Men. But modern advertising is called digital marketing, and it requires a small army of marketers to get a product noticed. This is because there’s an almost endless list of places all big brands need to advertise, such as organic Google search, Google Pay per Click (PPC), Google Display Ads, Bing, Bing Ads, or both free and paid versions of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. And that’s before we switch from inbound to outbound marketing such as email newsletters!

5. Drone Pilots / Technicians / Manufacturers

Of course, the plan with smaller items is to deliver them by drones. But until we create the technology that allows billions of drones to simultaneously fly themselves all over the world, these will need pilots. And people to load the goods into them. And fix them. And fuel them. And make them. A bit like this scene from the Fifth Element.

Of course, robots do take jobs. Not necessarily in every company, but more in whole companies altogether that don’t keep up with the pace of change in digital technology, and go bust. But that’s not the robots fault, it’s ours. Now time for a robo boogie.

1. Amazing Oxfordshire Companies: Reaction Engines Ltd (REL)
2. Selective Recruitment Adds Two New Members to our Growing Team!
3. Four important things you didn’t know you didn’t need to know about a no deal Brexit!
4. Selective Recruitment Awarded Renewed Gangmasters Accreditation!

What would you expect to find at the home of Reaction Engines Ltd (REL), at Culham Science Centre just outside Abingdon?

 As the name suggests, it’s engines of some sort – probably car or perhaps even industrial. But you’d be miles off, because what they’re actually making at REL is a future generation of space planes. You read that right: SPACE PLANES!

For the uninitiated, a Space Plane is a plane that can travel to and within the outer edge of our atmosphere (aka space) in order to reduce time, fuel, cost and pollution – making trips to Australia possible in only a matter of hours, by using the earth’s gravitational pull to travel at ridiculously high speeds (we’re talking in the thousands of miles per hour!).

And if you’ve read the BBC recently, you’ll have seen they’ve had a big breakthrough:

UK’s Sabre space plane engine tech in new milestone

So much so that Rolls Royce, BAE Systems and Boeing are backing the project.

According to REL:

“Our goal is to deliver a truly versatile propulsion system – a hybrid air-breathing rocket engine that can power an aircraft from a standing start to over five times the speed of sound for hypersonic flight in the atmosphere, and over 25 times the speed of sound for space access. With its wide range of operation and scalability, the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE™) represents a defining moment in powered flight.”

So there you have it. From everyone here at Selective Recruitment in Abingdon, Oxford, Southampton and London, we salute you!

As part of our ongoing mission to be the leading recruitment company across Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley – and also due to increased demand for our services – Selective Recruitment Group is delighted to announce the arrival of two new members to our growing team!

First up is Charlie Steaman who joins as Commercial Team Leader and is the newest member of the Selective team, with over six years’ experience within recruitment. During her career, Charlie has been blessed with working overseas in Bermuda and Grand Cayman, having formerly worked in the Insurance / Re-Insurance, Financial and Commercial sectors.

Charlie has an agile skill set and enjoys working with clients and candidates from all locations, both on a temporary and permanent basis. On a weekend, you can find Charlie enjoying time with her friends and family, if she isn’t jet setting around the world.

Prior to Charlie joining came Amy Sollis, who started as a Senior Managing Consultant in February 2019. Amy is heading up the Oxford office and brings over 16 years of recruitment experience within both agency lead and internal recruitment.  Amy is driven by people, excellent customer service and goes by the motto: “sales go up and down – service stays forever.”

Amy prides herself on an open, honest and professional service for both clients and candidates alike and works hard on providing a bespoke service to both to ensure that this works best for the individual. Having worked in the commercial sector recruiting for high-level EA, PA, Administration, HR, Sales, Customer Service, Finance and Receptionist professionals over the years, she enjoys a challenge and thrives on pressure!

When not at work Amy enjoys running, walking, dancing, having fun with her family and friends and generally being happy!

Says Emma Hunt, Managing Director of Selective Group:

“I’m absolutely delighted to be welcoming two such high calibre recruitment consultants to our growing team – at both of our Thames Valley offices in Abingdon and Oxford. It’s a testament to the hard work of our current group that we’ve needed to hire the two best available consultants we could find in order to continue delivering the best recruitment service possible to our clients.”

You can contact both Charlie and Amy via the details below:

Charlie Steaman

Tel: 01235 462 900

Email: charlie.steaman@selective-group.co.uk

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/charlie-steaman

Amy Sollis
Tel: 01865 595560
Email: amy.sollis@selective-group.co.uk

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/amy-sollis-53469b19

If you are interested in joining Selective’s team, please call Sian Hickey on 01235 462 900.

Selective recruitment is delighted to announce we have recently had our Gangmasters license renewed by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)  and are extremely proud to be accredited to this scheme.

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which operates a licensing scheme to regulate the provision of workers for roles in the UK fresh produce sector – agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and any associated processing and packaging.

Employment agencies and labour providers working in these fields have had to be licensed by the authority since 1 October 2006.

Says Emma Hunt, Managing Director of Selective Recruitment:

“I’m extremely proud of everyone here at Selective Recruitment to have achieved this renewal of our GLAA license – our commitment to the most robust recruitment and working practices underlines our mission to not only be the leading recruitment business in the Thames Valley, but also the most ethical and legally compliant.”

You can find out more about the legislation by clicking here, and you can see our certificate below.

After recent events in the Houses of Parliament, the UK is currently experiencing the greatest changes to its trading agreements for almost 250 years.

For many of us, it’s easy to think that the worst case scenario of these changes – a no deal Brexit – will have little impact on our lives. But in reality, this viewpoint is far from the truth.

Why? Because Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley region is a hive of employment activity, leading the way in sectors such as professional services, technology, hospitality and education. One key sector that employs hundreds of thousands of us each day is manufacturing, where we produce and export everything from chemicals and cars to pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Because a no deal Brexit affects the area far more than you might think, here are four important things you might need to know about a no deal Brexit.

1. Article 50
This is the legal mechanism which takes the UK out of the EU.

Easy so far, right?

2. 29th March 2019
This is the date on which Article 50 is enacted.

Still don’t see what all the fuss is about?

3. Votes
Theresa May has to get her EU withdrawal bill approved by parliament before 29th March 2019. And she’s had almost three years to do it. Her first go was in December 2018, but she got wind of a big loss so she delayed it until January 2019, where she suffered a big loss. She had another go on Tuesday 12th March, which she lost, so Parliament must next vote on Wednesday 13th March whether the UK should leave the EU without a deal. If they vote against a deal, they will vote on Thursday 14th March about whether Article 50 should be extended.

OK so things just got complicated.

4. Tariffs
As part of the EU, the UK currently has 0% import and export tariffs on all products to other EU countries, which is the UK’s biggest export market. Under a no deal Brexit, the government has confirmed that 87% of all goods will have a temporary import tariff of 0%. This is to protect UK consumers from a £9billion price hike but does not apply to most meat and dairy, in order to protect UK agriculture. Key to us though is exports, and without a deal we fall onto World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariffs. The WTO is an agreement for 164 countries who currently don’t have agreements to trade with each other, although this may soon be 165. Although the average tariff is relatively low at 2.8%, some items such as cars are taxed at 10% which would not be good news for BMW Mini. Others such as dairy are even higher at 35%.

Yep, I can definitely feel a headache coming on.